Tutorials for newbies!

EncFS, also known as EncFS Encrypted Filesystem helps you create an encrypted filesystem in the user-space (Desktop). It runs without any special permissions and uses the FUSE library and Linux kernel modules to provide the filesystem interface.

If you need a simple and easy way to create encrypted folders or directories in Ubuntu, then you may want to look at this tool. It provides security for your documents, backups and other data that may fall into the wrong hands. Even users who gained access to your computer may not be able to decrypt your encrypted data without the correct password. This is a great way to provide additional security for your sensitive information.

EncFS works to encrypt files and not the entire block device which makes it must faster and easier than most encrypting tool. This brief tutorial is going to show you how to install use EncFS Encrypted Filesystem to encrypt your important information.

To get started, press Ctrl – Alt – T on your keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens run the commands below to install EncFS.

sudo apt-get install encfs

Next, you need to create two folders in your home directory. These folders will serve as your encrypted folder and the mount point. The mount point is where your encrypted folder will be mounted and makes it visible for you to see the content in it. The mount point can be called anything you want it to be.

mkdir -p encrypted mountpoint

After that, you may run these commands below to mount the encrypted directory to the mount point. This is what you must do each time in order to mount your encrypted folder.

encfs ~/encrypted ~/mountpoint

You’ll be prompted to create a password the first time you run it. When prompted choose the pre-configured mode so EncFS can setup your profile.

Next, run the command below to view all mount file systems on your machine. You should be able to see the one you just mounted.

df -h

Go and open Nautilus and you should be able to see the mount point mapped on the left as shown below. In there, you can create and put anything you wish to hide or encrypt.

To decrypted or unmount the mounted encrypted file system, change to your home directory ( cd ) and run the commands below.